We thought we’ll make our yearly Penang trip this year earlier during the June school holidays.

We decided that this time we’ll not stay in Batu Feringgi, but in George Town instead, so that we don’t waste time travelling to town for all the good food. We chose Traders Hotel as our base, since I thought this is a business hotel and it should not be as crowded with families on holidays.

It was definitely a good choice, Traders Hotel is so near to everything, provides very good breakfast spread, and although there were many families on holidays, it didn’t feel as crowded. The only complaint I have is the room is a bit small for our family compared to rooms in hotel at Batu Feringgi.

♥June 10 – Thursday♥

We left home late morning, and 1st stop was Tanjung Malim town for (so-so) duck rice. After that, instead of heading towards Penang, Daddy drove back towards KL by mistake. He only realised that when we were reaching Lembah Beringin. 45mins wasted journey.

It was in the evening by the time we reached St Anne, Bukit Mertajam, a place we try to come once a year to give our thanks to all the blessings we received.

Zaria would now request for her photos taken at places she likes. Here is one with her in front of the old church.

And another at one of the station of cross.

Girls like the taps at the St Anne’s Water, because they get to play with water without get scolded.

And even do some water fight.

It’s always a nice feeling coming to this church.

Since we didn’t quite like the sea food in Bukit Tambut last year, we decided to have dinner in Penang Island instead. We headed to our favourite char kuey teow stall (Jalan Siam and Jalan Anson junction), but were told they have sold out. We headed to Nonya Breeze instead for home style Nonya food. The food at this place is always satisfying.

Girls were all excited when we reached the hotel. When we got into our room, they immediately rushed to the bed to jump. Some thing they always do on hotel beds! We had to literally drag them out of the room to head across the road to have some Tang Yuan.

Daddy can’t understand the rave about this tang yuan stall (across Traders Hotel on Magazine Road). It’s good but nothing fantastic. I told him he was lucky I made them at home, even the ones with fillings, or else, this would probably the best tang yuan he’s ever eaten.

♥June 11 – Friday♥

After a really good breakfast at the hotel, we let the girls spend time at the pool. The hotel has 2 small swimming pools (one for adults and another for kids) but because there wasn’t a crowd, it was very enjoyable.

We then headed to Ah Leng char keuy teow (junction of Jalan Dato Keramat and Jalan Dunlop), recommended by Chubby Hubby, where the kuey teow is a little wet, like pad-thai. It was ok but not really our cup of tea.

Girls fell asleep in the car, and we headed to Pulau Tikus to search for the best Soya Sauce made in Penang, which is also recommended by Chubby Hubby (Kwong Heng Loong 廣興隆醬園醬油, 7A, Jalan Pasar, Pulau Tikus).

I requested to taste the soya sauce before purchasing, and the shop owner scoped some out from an urn and dripped some into my palm to taste. Boy, it was good. I bought 10 bottles of the best ones, and already regretting I didn’t get more.

You can buy the soya sauce in bottles.

Or you can bring your old bottle to the shop for refills.

After that, we headed to Lebuh Armenian to look at all the World Heritage buildings.

We saw 2 of the houses under Straits Collection, run by Bonton.

We then chanced upon the Khoo Kongsi, and decided to visit it (RM5 per entry for adults).

It is a nicely preserved, and a beautiful place. Even though I don’t know much about architecture, I like the place and the feel of it.

If you think the outside of the clanhouse, Leong San Tong, is beautiful, the inside is even more so.

Since we didn’t get to eat our favourite Chay Kuey Teow the night before, we decided to try our luck again and went there earlier. Such an unassuming stall, but the char kuey teow is super good. The man who’s frying is rather old, I wish him good health so we can continue to enjoy his char keuy teow.

If you think Lorong Selamat or Sister’s Char Kuey Teow is good, wait till you try this. And only for RM3.80 per plate.

Back at the hotel, girls had a wild time jumping on the bed and playing hide and seek in the cupboard, until they got tired.

♥June 12 – Saturday♥

We have struck a deal with the girls that after breakfast, we’ll head on to Chowrasta Market and swimming will come later.

Instead of going to the market building on Penang Road, we went to the stalls along Jalan Kuala Kangsar.

Saw this man selling King Crab (I heard that’s what it’s called) and Giant Snails. Something we don’t find in KL except in those expensive sea food restaurant.

I bought ham and chinese sausages from this shop last year, and I went back there again to get more since my MIL said the ham was rather nice (and the chicken Chinese sausage is rare to find any where else). Zara was giggling away watching the animated owner when he gave us recommendations and introductions of items he sold in his shop.

Found a stall selling Kueh Ketayap. She was almost done for the day, but decided to make more batter, so she could sell a few to me to try. The coconut was grated fresh on the spot. It was soooooo delicious, even when we had them in the evening.

I also saw a popiah skin seller making the skin on the spot.

Girls found the place extremely interesting too, although it was a hot day, they enjoyed themselves checking out all the different stalls.

We then stopped by at Toh Soon Cafe (Lebuh Campbell) for drinks. I absolutely love the ice coffee-C (coffee with evaporated milk) there.

And Zaria loved the ice teh-C.

Pity the girls have to endure the heat, but luckily they didn’t complain.

We had some light lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Girls spent more time at the pool after their nap, and was really hungry during dinner. We had our last dinner at De Happy Seafood Restaurant (62, Macalister Road) near the hotel. It was not bad, although a bit pricey.

♥June 13 – Sunday♥

The hotel was extremely busy on our last day. We had to wait for 15mins to get a table for breakfast, as the restaurant was full.

After breakfast, I went back to Chowrasta Market to buy nutmeg and zhong (Mandarin : rice dumpling) while Daddy took the girls to the pool.

After I got back with my loot, we checked out and headed for lunch. We decided to go to Lorong Selamat for Char Kuey Teow. Big mistake. The place was very crowded, and we were told the wait is more than an hour, and if we weren’t willing to wait, we can go else where.

We waited, and true enough, got served only more than an hour later. And seriously, the kuey teow isn’t as good as our favourite stall (and RM7 per plate!). And the people in the coffee shop where the stall was located were extremely rude. We decided this would be our last time here. Next year, we should boycot this place.

Drive back home was rather slow as the traffic on the high way was very heavy. Maybe before Zara starts Std 1, we should try to go for holidays during school days instead to avoid all the expensive hotel rates and crowd.

11th March, Thursday
My brother flew down to Singapore with dad as dad has to do some more test at the hospital and to get himself admitted.

I’m not sure if it’s normal procedure, but for dad’s surgery, he had to do an ECG, Stress Test, CT-scan on the heart to see if he’s strong enough to go through the surgery. All these he did on 5th March when my sister and I went to Singapore with him. His risk was 5%.

My brother sms-ed us sometime in the afternoon informing us that dad has done a ct-scan on the heart artery, and the results wasn’t very good. His calcium deposit on the arteries was high. Increasing his risk. They were in the midst of talking to Dr KC Tan, the very famous liver surgeon, who’ll be performing dad’s surgery.

30mins later, my brother informed us that dad was all set for surgery. Dr KC Tan said due to the size of my dad’s tumor, the risk of him waiting longer to do the surgery after fixing his heart problem (3~6mths) is higher than doing the surgery the following day.

In the evening, my BIL drove 2 of my sisters, my nephews and me to Singapore. We arrived after 9pm, where my dad has already been warded, we had a short chat and left early so he could rest and be prepared for the big day.

My youngest sis stayed with my dad in the hospital, and each of us went back to our own accomodation.

12th March, Friday
All of us arrived early at the hospital. They started to sedate dad at about 10am +, we told him we would wait for him outside and asked him to be strong. He was already in a daze when he was wheeled into the operating theatre.

The doctor told us the surgery will be at 12pm and would take about 4hrs, and we can do our own things and come back by 4pm.

So off we went, having lunch and shopping around Orchard.

We got back at 3:30pm, and at 4pm, Dr Tan came out and told us the surgery was a success, dad didn’t loose much blood, and he’s in stable condition. There were also other satelite tumors found around the main tumor, and one of them was already leaking, as a pool of blood was found in the abdoment when they cut him up. It was good that he didn’t wait any longer to do the surgery, because if the tumor ruptured, it’ll be an emergency surgery.

4pm +, Dr Gong, the assistant surgeon came out and showed us the left lobe of the liver that was removed from my dad. It’s almost the size of a placenta.

I have some photos here, and if are interested to take a look (just for knowledge), just click on the links. Take note they are not a pretty sight.

Photo 1 : This is the size of what was cut out, and the main tumor can be seen right in the middle (lighter colour).
Photo 2 : The white bit is where it separates the left and the right lobe.
Photo 3: Another shot from another angle.
Photo 4: The super ugly satelite tumors can be seen clearly.
Photo 5 : Dr Gong actually sliced up the liver to show us what healthy liver and tumor looked like.

By 5pm+, my dad was wheeled out and brought straight to the liver unit ICU. He was still and will continue to be sadeted until the next morning. We were only allowed to see him through the glass panel, as he’s still very vulnerable.

The sight of him with all the tubes and machine beeping nearby, was rather heart breaking.

That evening, knowing his surgery is successful, and he’s in stable condition, we went to celebrate. We had dinner at Jumbo at Eastcoast, after sending my eldest sister off to the airport (she was going to Hong Kong 2 days later).

13th March, Saturday
I stayed the night at my BIL’s niece’s place, and at 6am+, we left for the hospital. They have removed the sedation from dad, and he was waking up when we arrived.

They actually have to strap him down, worrying he might just pull out all the tubes and gadgets that were attached to him when he’s awake.

Besides having a slightly high blood pressure, he was slowly coming to his senses. He told us he could remember nothing about the operation. His last memory was him being put on the stretcher, and then waking up now in the ICU.

He was not talking much, as he said he still felt sleepy, but we tried to keep him awake by talking to him etc.

By 11am+, he was out of ICU and transferred to the normal ward. My brother stayed till 1pm before he left for the airport for his flight home (he was going to New York a day later). The rest of us, just hung around the hospital accompanying dad. Luckily there’s TV and there’s broadband, so we were kept entertained.

Dad was slowly more alert, and chi-chatted to us a bit. He was still not able to eat anything, but solely depended on drips.

In the night, my youngest sis stayed the night at the hospital, and I went to my friend, SK’s house to stay.

14th March, Sunday
My dad could only have clear diet. I boiled him some ABC soup before I left for the hospital.

I took over my sister’s shift, and she was free to do her own things (but most of the time she remained in the hospital).

The nurses helped my dad to stand up for a couple of times, but he was complaining he felt dizzy, so he only walked till the door, and then had to turn back to rest. The nurses claimed the morphine might have caused that. He was spending most of his time seated however, and only lied down to take naps or to sleep.

His appetite wasn’t very good, eating (soup only) and drinking a little only.

15th March, Monday
Dr said he could start on soft diet, so I boiled some porridge for him. The hospital provided pretty good food actually, mashed potato with chopped fish, minced beef, etc, so it has been decided that I no longer needed to cook for him, and he’d just take the hospital food.

He could stand longer and even walked in the room withoug feeling dizzy. In the afternoon, the nurse decided to take him out for a walk. He’s definitely back to his normal self when he asked, “Does my hair look good?” before we left the room.

16th March, Tuesday
Still on soft diet, but eating more.

I came in about noon time to relieve my sister. We ate cold food which I packed from the coffee shops near my friend’s place, and also whatever dad couldn’t finish.

Dad was doing well, walking more, and the nurses actually had to tell him to slow down his pace. He complained no pain, but just said the stitches were a bit tight.

They also removed the catheter, so he had to go to the toilet to pee.

17th March, Wednesday
Still on soft diet and the nurses and doctors were closely monitoring his bowel movement. No bowel movement, no discharge. That was the order.

Dad went to the toilet a couple of times, but always came out disappointed.

We bought prune juice, got him papayas, and more fruit juice to try to help him.

When I left for the day, there was still no sign of the poop. Dad was getting a bit anxious.

18th March, Thursday
I sms-ed my sister in the morning, and she said dad has done his poop. He was sooo happy, he was declaring victory when he came out of the toilet.

So when I got in to the hospital, he was all ready to be discharged.

I settled all remaining hospital bills, and then waited till 2pm, our check in time at the service appartment.

We moved to a service appartment on Grange Road called Hotel Alternatives. They have a couple of units in Lucky Tower. Tey partitioned each condo units to several rooms, and let everyone share the common kitchen. We had a 2 Bedroom unit, and it’s actually the living and dining room of the condo. The toilet was the powder room. 🙁

It’s reasonably priced ($270/unit), and we thought we were going to stay for 7 nights, that’s why we settled for this. Boy, the thin plywood wall made the slightest sound audible, being a light sleeper, I didn’t have any good sleep while we were there.

That evening, the girls arrived with Daddy. They were so happy to see me after a week. Both was clinging on to me all the time.

19th March, Friday
My brother and his family arrived. Dad was feeling so much better, but he complained about the bed in the ‘hotel’ being too low, and difficult for him to get in and out of bed.

20th March, Saturday
Dad went for his follow up in the hospital, and requested the doctor to allow him to go home earlier. Instead of staying in Singapore for another 7 nights, he was given the green light to leave, since he was recovering well.

So it was decided that he will follow my brother home on Sunday, 20th March.

We were left with the problem of getting our money back for the other 3 nights that we would not be staying in the ‘hotel’, since we paid them up front in cash!

I will write about girls’ time in Singapore next. As for my dad, he’s now staying home and recovering well. He’s however, complaining that he’s very bored, and trying to get us to allow him to go back to work at his book shop.

We thought he should at least have a 30days confinement period, but I think he’s winning, next week I heard, my BIL will be sending him to the book shop to work half day.

We brought our father to Asia Centre For Liver Diseases & Transplantation located at Gleneagles Hospital Singapore for another round of diagnosis last weekend. It has finally decided that, it’s best he does a surgery, for these reasons :

1) His tumor is only on the left lobe, other part of his liver and organs are clean

2) His liver function is normal based on the blood test, meaning the other part of his liver is in good condition

3) His tumor is too big to be removed or killed by chemo, if he were to go for chemo, he’ll have to do many rounds to reduce the size.

His surgery will be tomorrow. Hope all will be well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m so touched by a few, who’d shown me so much compasion since they knew about my father’s condition.

Dinah, who helped me made the appointment with her BIL during Chinese New Year.

C, my neighbour, dropped by with books; one by Dr Wu, who has fought and won his cancer battle through a change of diet and lifestyle; and another book on negative ion and its benefit.
C also offered to take care of the girls and have them stay with her, if I needed to be away.

K, also my neighbour, in the midst of moving, dropped by with recipe books for cancer patients which she has to dig in her packed boxes.

SK, who’ll be giving me a place to stay, and her kitchen to use next week when my dad is in the hospital.

I’m most touched by Lisa, who is herself battling cancer with spunk. When she knew about my father, she started sending me all the long sms-es with information on things that I can do, or get for my father to help him, based on her own experience and what she knows. She said, “Fighting cancer is like a crash course.. getting a new degree.. in the shortest time.”

I thank her for giving me the cheat sheet.

And what touched me most was her dropping by my house yesterday with these for my dad.
Leaflet on Dr Rath’s Program.
3 bottles of Mangosteen juice (high in anti oxidant)
A box of Maharishi Amrit Kalash Mak 4 & 5 (also high on anti oxidant)

I didn’t get to see her, because I was out with the girls.

She also gave 2 Chinese style bags for the girls.

The girls were so happy to see those, and immediately started using them. See what they used them for?

*bow humbly* Thank you Lisa, C, K, SK, Dinah. I’m so touched by your compasion, your help and your friendship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Girls’ prayers for my dad now became something like this,
Zara : “Hope Ah Kong’s operation will not be painful. And he will get better after that, then he can play with me.”
Zaria : “Hope the doctor wash the knife clean clean clean for Ah Kong’s operation. And after that Ah Kong will not have diarhea any more.”

A couple of times I’d seen Jasmine posted about her visits to Dong Zhen temple, and the beautiful photos she’d taken, and I’d told Daddy that we must also visit this temple one day.

On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, since we didn’t have anywhere to go, we brought the girls on the long car ride to Jenjarom, to visit the Dong Zhen Temple (Actually, I don’t know why it’s called Dong Zhen, because the Chinese pronunciation for 東禪 is Dong Chan. Maybe it’s how it’s pronunced in another dialect).

We had a simple panmee dinner at some open air eatery before the temple, when we’re done, it was close to to 8pm and the road towards the temple has already been blocked. We had to park and walk about 1km.

The temple was very beutifully decorated, with red lanterns, fairy lights, and colour ligh tubes everywhere. They have very good lantern display, beautiful lanterns in all the Chinese zodiac signs, as well as in other auspicious forms were scattered around the big temple ground. The place has also drawn a very big crowd.

They had some Chinese New Year show on as well, and when we arrived, the Dragon Dance was being performed but we didn’t manage to catch it because we didn’t know the way to get to the performance area (heard it but couldn’t see it).

We only managed to catch a mini parade.

When the girls wanted to go to the toilet, I thought the nightmare has come. I assumed with such a big crowd, the toilet would be filthy. To my surprise, it was very clean. The volunteers who cleaned the toilet did such a good job I had to say.

We then got caught in a rain fall, which lasted about 20mins. The rain didn’t cool down the place, but made the ground a bit soggy (and I didn’t like it).

I didn’t want to walk any more but just sat at a bench with the girls, while Daddy went around to take more photos.

Although the whole place was beautiful, the stiffling night heat took away all the fun. Both Zara and I agreed that if Daddy wanted to go again next year, he’ll have to go alone, as we don’t want to be drenched in sweat any more.

This is the last installment of the trip. Continue from here.

♥Dec 1♥
Breakfast at Cicada Luxury Townhouse has to be ordered the day before, and it was brought to our room at our specified time.

It was complimentary for 2, but the quantity was enough for all of us. Girls each have a croissant (which had been removed from the basket in pic below), and some of my pancakes.

We decided to go on a tour to see : salt production, rice terrace, volcano. We booked a car (450,000 Rupiahs for 10hrs) and started our journey at 9:30am.

Driver brought us to a beach near Gianyar where salt used to be produced.

The salt traders however were gone. It was too much hard work and too little profit, so the salt producers all turned to a more profitable trade – pebble trading (they picked the pebbles from the beach, sort them according to size and sell them). We were dissapointed.

It was then a long ride up to Kintamani, to view the volcanos. Seen here is Mount Batur, and Lake Batur

Then another long drive to view the rice terrace at Tegalalang.

Tegalalang is also famous for wood handicrafts, and we saw a lot of young men carving wood blocks into beautiful art pieces.

After this, we went to Bebek Bengil, Ubud for lunch (which we found quality has lowered) and also to did some shopping. I managed to get some really nice jewelry pieces, but after walking for about ~2hrs under the hot sun, I started to feel a migraine coming.

Our driver said he asked around and found there’s a confirmed salt producer at Kusamba beach, so he drove us there. When we arrived at Kusamba, my head was already pounding, so I just stayed under the shed while Daddy looked around. He told me this was how salt was produced.

Sea water is mixed with sand and put into this container to get filtered.

Then the filtered sea water is collected (it actually goes through a few more round of filtering before being collected).

All these done in a small shed.

The filtered sea water is then left to dry under the sun, and salt will be produced.

Zara had a good time playing at the beach in Kusamba too.

By the time we got to the van, my migraine was getting worse. Instead of heading for dinner, we headed back to the villa. On our way back, I actually had to stop 3, 4 times to vomit. That night, the girls and Daddy had room service while I slept to get through the migraine.

♥Dec 2♥
I felt much better in the morning after a good sleep. The girls just wanted to swim, so they spent sometime at our own plunge pool as well as the main pool.

We took it easy for the rest of the day, just went shopping around Seminyak, had lunch at a nice restaurant, Warong Made.

I went for another massage when the girls were napping, and on my way, saw lots of people carrying offerings to the Petitenget Temple, so I told Daddy we should go and check out what’s happening.

It seemed, there was a 3 days celebration/prayers of some sort at the Petitenget Temple (which is located near the Petitenget Beach). We went over to the beach in the evening, and saw many people praying, giving offerings etc.





Of course when there are people, there is food. The stalls just sprouted around the beach (which were not there 2 days ago when we went to the beach).

After praying at the beach, everybody started heading towards the temple. Zaria was complaining she was feeling cold (a fever was brewing), so I brought the girls back to the villa while Daddy entered the temple to see more.

We had dinner at Bebek Bali that night, a place which offered all types of duck dishes.

Zaria wanted a photo of herself at the entrance of the restaurant (she was already running a fever).

When we got back, I realised Zaria was a bit feverish, her temparature was 38.4C and I gave her some fever medicine and got her to sleep early. When I went to bed at 12am and checked her again, her fever has shot up to 39C! Throughout the night, I had to sponge her, and her fever was hovering around 39.4~39.7 and she was muttering things nonsensical, making me extremely worried. I tried to stay guarded the whole night to sponge and check on her and drifted in and out of sleep (while Daddy snored away, typical).

♥Dec 3♥
Early in the morning, Zaria’s fever was still high. We informed the reception and asked if we could have a doctor sent to check on her. They instead offer to send us to a nearby doctor. I went with Zaria to Bali Clinic in Cicada’s van. The doctor checked and found Zaria had very bad throat infection, gave her suppository, some antibiotic, flu medicine and cough mixture and charged me USD90! A price I paid to get peace of mind.

When we got back to Cicada, I took a nap to recharge. We then started packing and prepared to check out. We were so delighted when the staff informed us we could have our villa till 5pm when our airport transport arrived, since Zaria was recovering from a very bad fever. How sweet of them! We didn’t even ask for it and was given just like that.

Daddy stayed at the villa with the girls while I went out to do some last minute shopping. I didn’t manage to get much as the street in Seminyak had a power cut and there was no aircon in any of the shops, and it was a super hot day. I bought lunch back, we just lazed around the room, and at 5pm went to the airport for our 7pm flight. Zaria’s fever by this time has subsided. Phew.

Continue from here.

♥Nov 29♥
After breakfast, we just lazed about. Then we had another obligation to fulfil, i.e. to bring the sponsor my dad out for a massage (“Come to Bali no massage? How can?”).

Only my SIL, my dad and I went. The massage centre provided free transport, and we all chose hot stone massage. Sharing the same room with my SIL, we were hoping for a relaxing massage, but the 2 masseurs were chatting throughout the 2hrs. The massage wasn’t that good too, felt just like someone rubbing oil on you. Grrr.

Daddy stayed at the villa and spent time taking photos accompanied the girls when they swam.

When we got back from our massage, lunch was ready (prepared by the villa).
Yums!

After that it was rest and relax and then at 4:30pm, our booked vans arrived to bring us to Jimbaran to watch the sunset.

The girls have no appreciation of the view, but they were happy to get to play with sand.

The place was crowded with tourists as well as locals.

Sam has very kindly relieved me off my porter duty.

When the sun was about to set at the horizon, we started seeing some tourists doing weird poses for their cameras, i.e. one put her hand out in such a way that it looked like she was carrying the sun; a few couples were kissing so the sun was just above their joined head; etc etc.

Here is my version. Daddy didn’t position the camera properly, so no ‘stylo-mylo’ shot.

After that, it was time for dinner. There were so many restaurants at the beach that competition was steep. My brother and sister went hunting for a restaurant which offered the best discount and they found one which was willing to give 30% off.

While waiting for the food to be served, Zara taught her cousins how to do the kung-fu panda dance she learnt for her concert.

And Daddy of course, went to do more photo shooting.

After dinner, one van drove some of the people home, while another brought a few of us to Kuta to buy DVDs. Imagine, 10,000Rupiah (USD1) for 1 DVD, and when you buy 10, it’s free 4. Buy 20, free 10, etc etc. My brother, my nephew and I bought almost 60 over pieces of DVDs and paid 30,000Rupiahs! What a loot.

♥Nov 30♥
It was time to pack up and leave after breakfast. My extended family checked out of Villa Longhouse, and went shopping in 2 vans then later catch a flight back home; while our family of four took another van to get to our new villa in Seminyak.

I’d spent a lot of time on researching for a place to stay (no Kuta, Ubud, Nusa Dua because we’d been there, no big hotels) and finally agreed on Cicada Luxury Townhouse, it is located near Petitenget beach at the fringe of Seminyak, the best part is payment is via paypal! So my blogging actually paid for our stay!

And it looks exactly like what is shown on the website. We get a plunge pool big enough (but rather deep) for the kids to splash about.

The spacious living room with a kitchenette gave us lots of space.

The bedroom with an outdoor rainshower and tub, and Zara claimed the extra bed for her was very cozy.

We didn’t do much except walk around to look for restaurant for lunch, checked out the beach in the evening and then later, went to a highly rated (at tripadviser) local restaurant Warong Sobat, near the villa, for dinner.
All this food with drinks and beer and starter for less than RM40.

This has been a trip planned long time ago, my dad sponsoring a 4 days 3 nights trip to Bali (flight + accomodation) for my extended family (all 15 of us), and our family of 4 extending another 3 nights.

♥Nov 27th♥

We took an early AirAsia Flight and arrived at Bali in the afternoon. The villa has sent 2 cars over to pick us up.

Cold towel and fresh juice awaited us at the villa.

Our 6-room villa, The Longhouse, is located at the hills at Jimbaran (which meant we get magnificent view of Jimbaran Bay and Tanjung Benoa). It is 4 stories high, comes with a lift and 6 beautifully furnished rooms; it has a small pool, a plunge pool (in one of the rooms), a jacuzzi, a gym, a big dining room, a huge TV room, a massage room, and many day beds scattered around the villa. 3 dedicated staff, a chef, and a manager were at our service.

Everywhere is beautifully decorated.

Everybody was busy checking out all the floors, the rooms and the facilities upon arrival. The ooohs and the aaahs were coming from every one.

We took a room with a big comfy day bed (which became Daddy’s bed), and what I like most about the room is the big granite bathtub which the girls loved.

Girls immediately changed to their swimming costumes and hit the pool, while we adults attacked the lunch prepared by the villa.

We had a relaxing day, just lazing around at the villa, swimming, lunching and dining at the villa, chatting, etc.

♥Nov 28th♥
After a long and lazy breakfast, we went on an obligated sightseeing trip to keep the sponsor my dad happy (“No sightseeing in Bali? How can?”). Since nobody wanted to be on the road whole day, and my dad had to attend mass at 5:30pm, we chose to visit Uluwatu nearby.

Monkeys were every where, we wonder if they were trained to grab people’s things. One grabbed my SIL’s glasses when she walked passed, and only when an old man (probably its handler?) gave it corn, then peanuts, then only the monkey tossed the glasses to the ground. Our driver told us to give a couple of thousand rupiahs (few ringgit) to the man as a token sum.

Look at the monkey comfortably seated with my SIL’s glasses.

Another monkey grabbed Sam’s, my niece’s, small monkey dangling from her Kipling bag, chewed the head off, ate the stuffing, then tossed it away.

All these monkey business and being baked under the sun (36degrees daily in Bali) to get these views.

As we didn’t bring a stroller along (Bali’s roads are not meant for strollers), and Zaria didn’t want to walk much (the heat maybe?), plus she complained everytime when Daddy carried her, his sweat stung her skin, I ended up being her personal porter.

Shopping, sightseeing, walking to look for restaurants, I had to piggy back the little princess.

After Uluwatu, we went to Kuta area to shop (and tried to stay in airconditioned places), then sent my Dad and brother to church. After their evening mass, we had dinner around Kuta area, and then headed back to the Villa all sticky with sweat.

Have you ever walked passed those Reflexology centre and wonder what they do inside? Wondering if it’s a dodgy place, if it’s to cater more for male patrons than female?

I used to walk passed one and have all these thoughts running through my mind. Even when I’d tried and liked the dui na (推拿- Chinese ancient massage) I did in my Shanghai trip last year, I didn’t feel comfortable enough to walk in to the ones in Malaysia, until I tried out Liang Xin Reflexology Centre (良心) in Penang. I got hooked! And realised not all reflexology centres are dodgy (but still, some are).

Since then, almost every week, I’ll get dui na done. I’d tried Wen Hsing in Sunway a couple of times, the masseur was good, but the facility was so so. The bed smelled a little, making me uncomfortable to lie on. Then I found another place where the masseur was even better, and the facilities much better and cleaner, and the price the same.

I started going there, and use the same masseur every time.

I have tried Indonesian, Thai, Malay and even Clarin massage before, and most of the time I would doze off mid way, the massages were normally relaxing. With dui na, it’s different. They massage your meridians, rub on areas you hurt most, many times I felt the urge to punch the masseur, but refrained myself. It’s not enjoyable during the session, in fact, it’s filled with pain, but after that, it feels good, like the strain I’d been carrying melted away and I normally sleep like a baby after that.

I’d also tried scraping (刮痧) and cupping (拔罐). Both left marks on the back which looked like I’d been badly abused. Scraping bruises took about 3 days to clear, cupping marks took about 4 weeks to clear off from my back (4 weeks after I’d done the cupping, there are still some very light circle marks on my back). I don’t really feel any effect after these.

However, since I’d started going for dui na regularly, I don’t feel as lethargic during the day, nor having all the aches and pains at the back after sitting and working long hours. So it must be doing something good to me, maybe even the scraping and cupping helped too.

Daddy thinks I’m wasting my money, but I don’t indulge on anything else (ok, ok, maybe the occasional splurge on skin care or books), so I’m not listening to him.

When you are in Penang, you have to try the delicious and refreshing Nutmeg juice. I haven’t really tried the juice that’s freshly squeezed out from the nutmeg (which I think is also available), the one I’d tasted is the boiled nutmeg juice which is a mix of sweetish, sourish and minty. Zara had her first taste of the drink when we went to Penang 2 weeks back. She loved it, and said it tasted like fizzy Ribena.

On our last day in Penang, since I spotted some fresh nutmeg for sale in Chowrasta Market, I bought 2Kg home and asked around for the method to make the drink. (Btw, at the stalls that are facing Penang Road, they were selling at RM12/kg, but at the back of the market, it was only RM3/Kg).

This is what fresh nutmegs look like

This is what the seeds look like, the red ‘flowery’ mace and the seed can be used for cooking especially salted vege duck soup (Kiam chai ak) but they all turned mouldy and I had to throw them away before having a chance to try it on other recipe.

This is how I made mine (recipe calls for 1Kg nutmeg and 1Kg rock sugar, but I reduced the rock sugar amount).
2 Kg fresh Nutmeg
1Kg Rock Sugar

Method
Wash nutmeg and scrub off any dirt from nutmeg.
Half the Nutmeg and remove the seed.
Smash the Nutmeg.
Layer Nutmeg and sugar in slow cooker, i.e. one layer nutmeg cover with rock sugar, until the whole pot is filled (no water added!).
Turn on slow cooker to high and boil content for 3hrs, then turn power to auto and boil for another 6hrs.
Filter out the thick reddish liquid which can be stored in a container
Mix nutmeg syrup with water to get nutmeg juice drink.

After this first round of boiling, I actually put back the boiled nutmeg into the slow cooker, poured in some water, and turned on slow cooker to auto and boiled the content for another 8hrs. This gave me another batch of syrup which was a bit more diluted but nonetheless as tasty.

I love the red wine colour of the drink, and wonder why the flash being so white, can produce drink this colour.

(The very detail report is for our convenience so the next time we’re in Penang, we know exactly where to eat!)

We made our yearly trip to Penang again on October 12th to 17th. No, we didn’t stay in Hard Rock, but Bayview Beach Resort next door (making it our 4th stay in this hotel). We had to go on weekdays (and the girls have to skip school) because I joined Bayview Privilege and got some vouchers usable only during weekdays.

♥12th Oct 2009♥
Our first stop as usual was St Anne’s in Bukit Mertajam. I so love the old church building.

When we entered the church, I asked Zaria to dip her fingers into the holy water to do the sign of cross. She shouted, “NO! IT’S POISONOUS!” o.O” She waited and see what happened to us before agreeing to do it, and later, at the new church, she wanted to dip her fingers in each holy water container and do the sign of cross at every entrance.

Zaria as usual climbing here and there, and Zara told her off.

Girls loved looking at the stations of cross, and especially interested in Christ’s crucifixion.

Before crossing over to Penang island, we had dinner at Bukit Tambun but found the food quality deteriorated. Should have eaten in Penang Island instead. One meal wasted.

Our first night in Bayview was in the Superior room (free), with a super huge king bed, which the whole family could sleep on comfortably.

♥13th Oct 2009♥
I drove out to look for breakfast as it was not included for our free night stay. Except for mamak stalls, there wasn’t much to offer around Batu Feringgi. I finally found a food court in some residential area, and got nasi lemak and noodle for the girls and myself, and toast for breadman Daddy.

Girls of course wanted to go to the pool after breakfast. Zaria had all the gears ready, but she was afraid to be in any part of the pool where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

We switched to the family suite at noon time, which has 2 rooms (1 with the super king size bed again, and the other with 2 single beds) and a shared bath room. Girls were happy to have their ‘own section’, and each happily booked a bed.

After switching room, we thought of driving out to Tanjung Bunga Papa Pizza for lunch since the girls so liked it the last time. Tried as I did, the girls couldn’t stay awake on the drive, and when we got to Tanjung Bunga, both were sound asleep. Worse still, Papa Pizza was closed (I think they no longer do lunch). We couldn’t find the char kuey teow stall behind Papa Pizza as well, and all the rest of the restaurants (The Bulgaria, The Thai restaurant) were not opened! What is this? Restaurants in Penang don’t open on Tuesday? We ended just having some road side curry puff, fried sweet potatoes and some bread for lunch, and the girls later had the cheese puff I brought from home after they woke up from their nap. Another meal wasted!

In the evening, Daddy suggested we took a drive to Balik Pulau. We shouldn’t have agreed. What a waste of time. All we got to see was the big dam, the winding roads and lots of durian orchards. What saved the trip was dinner. We chanced upon this road side Seafood restaurant near Ayer Itam called, Red Bali Seafood Restaurant, which was quite good and very reasonably priced. No food pix as we didn’t bring along the maid, and every meal time was like so kan-chiong (Cantonese : nervous), trying to coax both the girls to eat.

We drove back to Batu Feringgi, did some DVD shopping, and then walked over to Hard Rock Hotel for drinks. Girls absolutely love the sandy pool area.

That night, we got the girls to sleep in their own room. Zaria reluctantly let go of my arm when I said my good night, and Zara made me promise I wouldn’t close the door to our room. At ~3am, I heard Zaria crying, and got up. She was actually walking around the other room probably looking for us. I invited her to our bed, and then she settled down. Zara too was awaken by Zaria’s cry, but when I asked her to join us in our bed, she said she was fine sleeping on her own. What a big girl’s behaviour!

♥14th Oct 2009♥
We decided to spend the whole day in the hotel. Zara swam with Daddy, while Zaria preferred to stay in the Kids’ Club. When it drizzled, Zara too came and joined Zaria at the Kids Club for arts and craft.

For lunch, we walked over to Hard Rock poolside pizzeria with our swimming gear.

Girls immediately went to play in the water play area next to the pizzeria. 2 staff actually came over to tell us to get them out, as the play area was only for hotel guests. We tried to get the girls out but they just wouldn’t listen, and anyway, we’re paying guest as well, for lunch, and who asked them to put the play area near the pizzeria? In the end, when the 3rd staff came over, I shouted for Zara and Zaria to come back and told him, “They won’t listen to me, you go and tell them yourself.” He then said, “Never mind la, I have children myself, I know how they are.”

Btw, as guests, when you get your pool towels, you are being tagged with wrist bands, so they can identify you are Hard Rock Hotel Guests in the compound (and not like us who just walked over from another hotel). Hmm..

The pizza wasn’t really that great, girls only had a little. And I guess they were also distracted by the slides and the water play area next to the pizzeria.

When we asked Zaria to pose for the camera, this was what she did.

After lunch, they continued to play under the hot sun, and I had to literally dragged them out and go back to our hotel to shower and rest.

For dinner, I met up with my friend and her family at Mama Nyonya in town. I haven’t met her for 15years (and I found her through netlog)! Her children are already 15 and 12! It was also nice to meet up with her pop star look-a-like husband.

That night, girls slept on their own beds till the next morning!

♥15th Oct 2009♥
We let the girls swim a while after breakfast, and then we had to check out to move to the city. We had the overpriced Char Kuey Teow shop on Lorong Selamat for lunch!

When we arrived, girls were asleep, and gosh, Zaria was such a tyrant when she got up. I.e. throwing the spoon when Daddy tried to feed her some ice cream, pushing the plastic chairs in the coffee shop, and the final straw was lying on the greasy floor and picking up the ice cream that dropped with her spoon earlier and then put it in her mouth! I raised my voice, gave her a smack, carried her to the toilet at the back (risking she could very well lie down on the toilet floor) and lectured her. I got a few stares from tables around, but heck! She decided to be behave when I told her I would have to close the toilet door and leave her there for a few minutes if she didn’t.

I was actually boiling mad when I ate my char kuey teow!

We got a Junior Suite in Bayview Hotel Georgetown. It was just a suite with a small room and a big living room (whatever for! I want a bigger room anytime!) The bed was just king size. I joined two of those semi-circle chairs together and told Zaria that’s her lily pad bed, just like Thumbelina, and she bought it (just for the first night though).

After a nap for everybody (did you notice every day we have to nap? Not just the kids, the adults too), we decided to explore George Town on foot!!

We took a slow walk from the hotel along Penang Road, all the way to Komtar, then to Lorong Abu Siti, have dinner in our favourite restaurant Nyonya Breeze, then walked back again to the hotel.

We stoped and rested on benches along the road (how come in KL there’s no such thing?) when the girls needed a rest. We pointed out interesting things or building to the girls, chi-chatted, and on a balmy evening, it was quite a pleasant walk. My 2 girls were great, they walked and walked (we left the stroller back home, btw), and when they were tired, they asked us to carry them.

Once, Zara said she was tired, and asked me to carry her. She’s already 18Kg, I can only carry her piggy back style. After 2~3 minutes or so, I told her my back was hurting as she’s very heavy. She told me, “Never mind mum, you can put me down. I’m not tired any more.”, and she walked the rest of the journey. Such a considerate girl.

That night, Zara, Daddy and I slept on the King bed, and I put Zaria on the make-shift ‘lily pad’ crib. I should have taken a photo but didn’t. If you wonder how the lily pad crib looks like, I actually park 2 of such chairs together to form an oval shape crib.

Credit : picture taken from Cococozy

♥16th Oct 2009♥
We took another walk around George Town after breakfast. Because of the late morning heat, this time we didn’t go that far. We stopped for tea and toast at Toh Soon (yummy!), packed Char Siew Rice for the girls from Jit Seng (girls gave thumbs up); had char kuey teow and Hokkien Mee along Penang Road (so-so). Zara started asking question, “Why we always eat only?“

When we got back to the room, girls took their naps while I went to Liang Xin Reflexology on Penang Road, near the hotel, for a 90 minutes message. Boy, it was gooood. The masseur’s strong hands kneaded all my tiredness away (doing every thing for the girls without the maid did take a toll on the body).

In the evening, we drove out this time and decided to try the char kuey teow my friend recommended, at the junction of Anson Road and Siam Road. At 6pm, the place was already packed! We ordered a big plate to share since we planned to eat at a few more places, and didn’t want to fill our stomach up at the first stop. OMG! It was scrumpilicious! And so much cheaper than Lorong Selamat’s!

Zara tried ours which was spicy, and asked for a plate for herself too. We ordered another one for the girls without chilli, and they really liked it (actually, this was their first taste of char kuey teow).

After that we went to Lebuh Kimberly for more food. I ordered a bowl of duck porridge, and then we all had dessert from the Tong-sui stall. Porridge has this strong pork intestine smell (Buek!), but my almond milk was good. Daddy bought some ham jim peng (Cantonese : some fried spice dough) from a stall, and he loved it.

Then we drove to New Lane near Sunway Hotel, a super busy place with lots of stalls, but we just ate some Apom and red bean soup.
I jokingly asked Zara, “What do you want to have for dinner? It’s 8pm now, dinner time.”.
She arched her brow and went, “Huh? I had fried kuey teow already wut.”
“That was snack, now it’s dinner. In Penang, you must eat and eat and eat.”
She frown and said, “People in Penang don’t sleep one is it? They just eat and eat and eat? I don’t want to be a midget, I want to go back and sleep.
Hehe.

Our highlight of the night was supposed to be the Tang Yuan stall directly opposite Traders Hotel. We were saving our stomach for this. Alas! The place was closed for that night! Sigh. Zara is the happiest, “Now we can go back to the hotel!”

That night, Zaria said no to the lily pad crib, so 4 of us squeezed on the king bed.

♥17th Oct 2009♥
Girls preferred to stay in the room after breakfast while I went to do some shopping in Chowrasta Market. I really should have skipped breakfast and eat at the market. There was so much on offer and they all looked good! I did pop by Toh Soon for a cup of tea first though. Bought some fresh nutmeg, some dao-zhang from Cintra Street, more DVDs (btw, the vendors in Georgetown are not as honest as the ones in Batu Ferringgi), and then walked back to the hotel.

We started packing and checked out. Lunch was again Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat. This time Zaria behaved but vomited instead. She said I fed her too big a bite. o.O” I think the next time we go there, they will pay us and beg us to go else where!

On our way home, girls were rather glad, and they started telling us what they missed most. Zara was her cosy bed, and Zaria was all the jigsaw puzzles she’s left behind.

Until next year.